Pyramid Mountain
Glacier Peak Wilderness
Labor Day Weekend - 2013

Danny, Shelby, & Meghan
Sandblaster High Route

This was my sixth trip to Pyramid Mountain. It is one of my favorite trails, starting high with views as you traverse high ridges. We had good weather and as usual, Shelby came up with something new for this trip (See photos).

I had originally planned to do a somewhat reverse trip of what we did in 1998 (CLICK HERE) but we opted to not follow the trail over to the North Fork of the Entiat valley, but instead come out via the South Pyramid Creek Trail.

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Shelby passed me just a little ways from the trailhead. This view is looking northerly with Silver Ridge to the left. If you look closely you can see the trail as it traverses the slope to cross Silver Ridge.

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Photo from the point that the trail crosses to the other side of Silver Ridge looking back towards the the trailhead parking area. Big Hill is the bump in the middle of the photo. If you enlarge the photo you can see Shelby's red truck parked in the trailhead.

I was surprised that there was only one other car parked at the trailhead (a couple of day hikers) on Labor Day Weekend. We left the Gray Ghost at the N. Fork of the Entiat trailhead where we would end our trip. The NF trailhead parking lot was pretty full.

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Zoomed view looking back. This part of the trail was hit by a big forest fire in 1970. The area past the trailhead below Big Hill shows evidence of another fire several years ago. On my first trip along this trail (1982) the fire damage from the 1970 fire was very apparent.

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On the west side of Silver Ridge we get our first view of Glacier Peak.

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The trail traverses from Silver Ridge to Pope Ridge below peak 7035and then descends to a saddle overlooking Corral Creek to the east. Lake Chelan is not visible from the saddle.

As the trail traverses Crow Hill, the views are spectacular. Here we see Pyramid Mountain to the right and Cardinal Peak to the left.

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A view of the trail along Crow Hill, looking towards Pyramid Mtn. Unfortunately, it isn't long until the trail drops down steeply about 600 feet to the junction with the Butte Cr Trail (you have to look for it as it is not obvious) on a saddle between the Butte Cr and Sheep Cr drainages.

As we took our break at the saddle we encountered a bow hunter coming in for the weekend. This would make a total of 3 people we saw on Saturday of the Labor Day weekend.

The trail takes a more easterly turn and drops another 200 feet or so as we circle around the Butte Cr Basin. It then climbs slowly to a small creek and small meadows (the first water and possible camp - the bow hunter was going to camp here).

enlarge 328KB, 800x60016pyr2013-015Click this Link to see how "No Bastard" camp got its name.

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After leaving camp the trail gradually climbs through alternating stretches of forest and meadows.

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A little over a half a mile from camp we come to the junction with the Pyramid Lookout trail.

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Danny and Meghan at the beginning of the Lookout trail.

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Shelby at the Lookout trail junction. From here the lookout trail contours through forest and passes a meadow with camping (Elev 6750) before beginning the long climb to the summit of Pyramid (Elev 8243).

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Since I had been to the top of Pyramid 5 times ('82, '87, '93, '95, & '98), I decided that I would call take a break at the first big switchback (Elev 7700) and wait for the others to make their way back down. As I waited I was passed by 3 mountain bikers and a pair of hikers on their way up. When Shelby, Danny, and Meghan were back, we took a break for lunch.

After lunch we backtracked down the trail and headed out on an abandoned sheepherder's trail to the meadows below Grouse Pass. The start of the vague tread is the "Sandblaster". If you enlarge this photo to "Original Size", you will see Shelby at the top of the "Sandblaster" with Danny and Meghan just behind. As usual, I'm way in the rear.

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The top of the Sandblaster. If you enlarge the photo, you can make out the vague tread. The others had already made their way down past the borders of the photo.

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The old tread heads down through forest and is pretty easy to follow, except for one stretch among a bunch of big boulders.

You think you should go down but actually you go up a ways and pick up the tread again.

The tread leads to a shoulder above one of the meadows under peak 8189. If you look close there are cairns that lead you to the meadow and then up over a small ridge that bisects the two meadows.

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Taking a break at the ridge. Peak 8189 beyond.

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From the previous spot, a photo looking back towards the "Sandblaster". If you enlarge the photo to "Original Size" you can see the tread of the old trail (not the steeper game track cutting down the slope). This is a zoomed view.

Our original plan was to bushwack our way to Grouse Pass and then continue on the Pyramid Trail to Fox Camp (Click Here for Link).

However, when we went over the saddle between the two meadows, we found a nice camp with water nearby. We decided to camp there instead of humping over Grouse Pass (the section of trail between Grouse Pass and Fox Camp being my least favorite section of the Pyramid Mtn trail).

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Shadows falling at our camp. Peak 8189 is in the background.

So we had a restful afternoon in a very scenic spot. I did have a little difficulty getting water as the creek was very shallow and you couldn't dip it without getting a lot of dirt and scum. I dredged out a hole and waited for the muddy water to clear before filling our jugs.

We followed the cairns down until they finally petered out, but we just kept bearing SW through fairly open forest (Here we are coming upon a meadow along the way) till we hit the Pyramid Mtn Trail between Buck Camp and Grouse Pass.

Buck Camp was full with a horse party. From there on we finally saw the Labor Day crowds. We followed the trail down the junction with the SF Pyramid Cr Trail and took it out to the NF Entiat trailhead.

A couple of day hikers came in and parked as we were packing up the Gray Ghost and shared a watermelon with us, which was a great treat after a long dusty valley pound.